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A Sense of Geologic Time

Activities: Pre-1500: A Geologic Sense of Time - Grade Level [8-12]

4.5 Billion Years Ago: Earth Forms

Scientist believe the earth was formed somewhere around 4.5 billion years ago. That’s a long time ago. Suppose you created one long piece of paper, stretched it out over 10 miles, and started recording what we now know about the earth. To begin with the easy tasks, you would record what we know from a study of recent historical records. Then, as you worked ... Read more

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Loved Ones Lost

"Outside of the death of one’s own child, I think sending a boy to war would be the most difficult."
—Marialyse Hager Knobel
Fairbury High School Student

What happened to Corporal William E. Green is one of the many stories of a mother experiencing both the anxiety of sending her son to war, and then, the pain of losing him there. Bill Green was in Europe only a few months before he was killed at the Siegfried Line between Luxemburg and Germany on ... Read more

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The Challenges of the Plains

Lesson Plans & Activities: 1850-1874: Homestead Act Signed: The Challenges Of The Plains - Grade Level [4-12]

The “Great American Desert” was an erroneous title — but it was one that stuck for nearly 30 years. From extras from the 2008 NET TV production, Beef State

Major Stephen Long coined the phrase during his expedition to the Great Plains in 1819-20. His journey was only the third major exploration of the Louisiana Purchase since the U.S. bought it from France in ... Read more

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A Cold War & a Hot Bomb

After World War II, the Soviet Union propped up Communist governments in eastern Europe. The Iron Curtain had descended, and the U.S. responded with a policy of deterring further expansion.
An excerpt from Cold Warriors Never Die.
Courtesy 1990 NET Foundation for Television

In 1950, the U.S. government adopted a new cornerstone of its foreign policy based on the finding that the Soviet Union was likely to launch a surprise attack on us "once it has sufficient atomic capacity." That assessment was included ... Read more